World-famous naturalist David Bellamy is backing the Black Country’s bid for £50 million lottery cash to open up a breathtaking underground world and bring the region alive with wildlife.
Professor Bellamy has voiced his strong support for a revolution in the region by getting behind the A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park project.
The botanist and television presenter has thrown his weight behind the Living Landscape element of the bid which will battle it out for the money on The People’s £50 million Contest on ITV in December.
Mr Bellamy, who is president of the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country, said: “This is a really fantastic project to heal a damaged urban landscape – it will bring wildlife back into the lives of a million people.
“The Living Landscape project is such a terrific idea. Go for it,” he said.
“When completed, it will be a wonderful, vibrant patchwork quilt of nature in which the Black Country can take great pride,” he went on to say.
Living Landscapes is a project promoted by the wildlife trust to enhance and increase access to nature by breathing new life into some 20 green spaces dotted around the region.
The trust is one of six partners involved in promoting the region’s bid.
The others are: Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton councils, as well as the Black Country Consortium, which is leading the bid.
The project includes opening up the spectacular limestone caves beneath Dudley and revamping the Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, linking Walsall and West Bromwich with a 12-mile green corridor, and breathing new life into Wolverhampton’s canal network.
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If you want to join David in supporting the Black Country Urban Park project please follow the link below :
http://www.thepeoples50million.org.uk/forum/people.php?PostBackAction=ApplyForm
Stand UP for the Black Country Urban Park
As a young laddie in the sixties living on the Priory I remember many enjoyable(and scarey) times exploring the seven sisters(caves) and the Bottle ‘ole and standing looking up through to the sky through the Cherry ‘ole. It is amazing down there.When I was about 10 sadly I remember a young lad of about 14 fell down the Limestone Hole and was killed. These caves were and still are dangerous.It would be wonderful if these caves could be made safe enough for people to once again visit them.I remember seeing albino newts in pools down there which because of my age i did not realise the rearity of.Perhaps they may still be there.I know I would like to go back underneath the “Wrener” even if it was just a nostalgia trip to relive my youth.
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